{"id":13150,"date":"2020-09-15T08:58:55","date_gmt":"2020-09-15T06:58:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/egophobia.ro\/?p=13150"},"modified":"2020-09-15T08:58:55","modified_gmt":"2020-09-15T06:58:55","slug":"poems-by-ds-maolalai-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/?p=13150","title":{"rendered":"poems by DS Maolalai"},"content":{"rendered":"

A cabin fire<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

from the window,<\/p>\n

behind curtains,<\/p>\n

rain cracks like logs<\/p>\n

in a cabin-grate<\/p>\n

fire. we could be somewhere<\/p>\n

on holiday now,<\/p>\n

off in the mountains,<\/p>\n

with red wine in goblets,<\/p>\n

not to mention the red, wine-<\/p>\n

flushed cheeks. sitting together<\/p>\n

on a rug of real<\/p>\n

sheepskin, and rough walls<\/p>\n

built by workmen<\/p>\n

and rented to tourists<\/p>\n

like us. the sound<\/p>\n

of the rain<\/p>\n

goes on without<\/p>\n

stopping. the sky<\/p>\n

dribbles into<\/p>\n

the earth. and inside, I admit<\/p>\n

we are warm, but not<\/p>\n

comfortable. this is<\/p>\n

no holiday. frankly,<\/p>\n

I said something<\/p>\n

thoughtless at dinner.<\/p>\n

we’re neither<\/p>\n

in the best<\/p>\n

of our moods.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Peace.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

beer bottles<\/p>\n

broken<\/p>\n

at night-time,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

and all morning<\/p>\n

the sparkle<\/p>\n

and light.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

someone<\/p>\n

in car<\/p>\n

in an alleyway.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

a dog<\/p>\n

smelling dropped<\/p>\n

bags of chips.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Never the topic.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

to make a poem<\/p>\n

a builder could read<\/p>\n

or just recognise.<\/p>\n

such aspirations.<\/p>\n

such condescension<\/p>\n

made worse for being true.<\/p>\n

right now, I work<\/p>\n

each day with electricians<\/p>\n

and carpenters,<\/p>\n

and they’d never guess<\/p>\n

if you asked<\/p>\n

that I wrote poetry.<\/p>\n

we talk, sometimes,<\/p>\n

about girls and cars.<\/p>\n

talk about dogs,<\/p>\n

about politics. art<\/p>\n

is never the topic \u2013 well,<\/p>\n

sometimes tv.<\/p>\n

we stand outside<\/p>\n

the maintenance office,<\/p>\n

drinking tea like water<\/p>\n

from cups. we eat<\/p>\n

sandwiches. smoke<\/p>\n

cigarettes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Fascism rises<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

like underdone chicken<\/p>\n

in europe again,<\/p>\n

and america. what,<\/p>\n

this time<\/p>\n

will save us?<\/p>\n

not poetry.<\/p>\n

never poetry.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The chef.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

she has<\/p>\n

two shelves<\/p>\n

of spices,<\/p>\n

a windowsill of herbs<\/p>\n

and a fridge<\/p>\n

filled with bottles of sauces,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

and meanwhile<\/p>\n

your idea<\/p>\n

of a good meal<\/p>\n

is boiled water<\/p>\n

with meat<\/p>\n

and two kinds<\/p>\n

of vegetable. you boil it<\/p>\n

hard and ignore it,<\/p>\n

then snap back and remember<\/p>\n

when it’s eventually<\/p>\n

soft enough to chew.<\/p>\n

you’re healthy anyway \u2013 at least<\/p>\n

you try to be.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

whenever you go over<\/p>\n

she asks what you want to eat<\/p>\n

and thinks<\/p>\n

you’re being polite<\/p>\n

when you say<\/p>\n

you don’t mind.<\/p>\n

but really,<\/p>\n

you don’t \u2013<\/p>\n

anything is better<\/p>\n

as the stuff you have at home.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

you’re putting on weight,<\/p>\n

and you know it,<\/p>\n

getting to know her.<\/p>\n

but god,<\/p>\n

the energy<\/p>\n

after a good plate<\/p>\n

of butter chicken on rice<\/p>\n

or perogies<\/p>\n

with a side of beetroot<\/p>\n

two draughts of beer \u2013 you could fuck her<\/p>\n

six ways left<\/p>\n

of wednesday<\/p>\n

and will \u2013 she<\/p>\n

wants you to \u2013<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

it’s amazing<\/p>\n

what flavour<\/p>\n

can do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A cabin fire.   from the window, behind curtains, rain cracks like logs in a cabin-grate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1435,77],"tags":[1404,1436,1123],"class_list":["post-13150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-egophobia-64","category-english","tag-ds-maolalai","tag-egophobia-64","tag-english"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6DakB-3q6","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13150"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13151,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13150\/revisions\/13151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}